zd8000 Hard drives

The difference is massive. My zd8000 shipped today, and I had them put a 40 Gig 4200rpm drive into it becuase I'm going to yank the 60gig 7200rpm drive from my current laptop and put it in the new one. Upgrading from a 4200rpm drive to a 7200rpm drive nearly tripled the performance of my current laptop. It was worth every penny.

Well my friend...if you wanted to know, putting the new hd in your laptop is pretty easy! And staples and big stores like that are pusses. Just because they have a big name..they expect you to believe they have the best items! Believe me my parents are sucked into it!

Yes you can use any brand of HDD. Just make sure they are 2.5" notebook hard drives. The Hitachi Travelstar 60gb 7200rpm HD is probably the only one you are going to find right now.

I think since HDD's are user upgradable, they should'nt void the warranty.But check with HP on this.

The 6XX series P4's have their 64 bit extensions enabled...so they can use 64 a bit OS(Win XP 64 bit is being released soon). They also have double the amount of L2 cache(2mb) than the 5XX(1mb) series.

Anandtech has a nice review ...
http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets...oc.aspx?i=2353

I guess you can get the 600 series P4 since its newer and you can also upgrade to yhe 64 bit OS when its released.

same problem...

Hey guys, first post here, although been watchin from the sidelines for the past weeks. Anyhow.. I too ordered a ZD8000 recently. March 8th to be exact.

Specs:
- Microsoft(R) Windows(R) XP Professional
- Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 540 w/HT Technology, 3.2GHz
- 17.0" WXGA+ BrightView Wide Viewing (1440x900)
- 1.0GB DDR2 SDRAM, 400MHz (2x512MB)
- 60 GB 7200 RPM Hard Drive
- DVD+/-RW/R & CD-RW Combo w/Double Layer Support
- 128MB ATI Mobility Radeon(TM) X600
- 54g(TM) 802.11b/g WLAN w/ 125HSM/SpeedBooster(TM)
- 12 Cell Lithium Ion Battery
- Microsoft(R) Works/Money

So this system is slated to be built by the 29th of March and be in my hands, apparently, two days later. Time is of the essence for me since I will be needing this notebook for school. I plan to be very semi mobile with the computer so weight isn't really an issue. I like to game semi occasionally, Half-Life 2, CS:Source, Warcraft III... other than that I do occasional photo editing and generally like a responsive, quick computer. Running on a dino desktop as of now

I logged onto HP the other night and was flabbergasted to find that they were offering the Pentium 640 along with 533MHZ RAM, although they seem to be out of the 7200RPM drives.

Microsoft(R) Windows(R) XP Professional only $49!!
Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 640 w/HT Technology, 3.2GHz
17.0" WXGA+ BrightView Wide Viewing (1440x900)
1.0GB DDR2 SDRAM, 533MHz (2x512MB)
40 GB 4200 RPM Hard Drive---- I plan to swap this with a 7200 which I'll have to buy elsewhere
FREE upgrade DVD+/-RW/R CD-RW Combo w/Double Layer
128MB ATI Mobility Radeon(TM) X600
54g(TM) 802.11b/g WLAN w/ 125HSM/SpeedBooster(TM)
12 Cell Lithium Ion Battery
Microsoft(R) Works/Money

So, I evaluated my options...

My options are.
1. Keep the system I have now because 64bit, Intel Step Down, and the larger cache isn't really all that necessary... I also called HP today and they informed me that upgrading the CPU is out of the question because it is soldered onto the motherboard. I kind of find that hard to believe but I'm not sure...
2. Tell HP to cancel the order I previously held and order the new system with the 640 3.2, 1 GB, and 5200 RPM Drive which I will later swap out for a 7200. The catch with all this is that I have to cancel my original order through HP as to get refunded my money. That might not happen in the case that it's already built/being built, in that situation I will have to deny acceptance when it is shipped to me so that it can be sent back to HP and then be refunded.

So I'm left with the prospect of having around 4200 dollars tied up until April 3rd-5th (which is when the Pentium 640 equipped ZD8000 would come). Really is quite a mess, especially after committing to the damn thing. Any comments/suggestions would greatly be appreciated..

I'll be ordering mine next week....still a toss up with the Dell 9300 though I am swaying to HP to take advantage of the 0 interest 12mos.Hope the same deal is available then.

rama26

Have a look at this review at Anandtech..
http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets...oc.aspx?i=2353

Yes,the 6XX series is faster but not by any significant margin..
Ofcourse they have their 64bit extensions enabled but that becoming a mass market is still some time away..(MS will release Win XP 64bit some time later this year)
The 5XX series are still speedy...I would say keep the order and forget about the hassles of cancelling it.